Readmission Rates High for HD Patients After CVD Hospitalization

In a study, the 30-day readmission rate for hemodialysis patients hospitalized for cardiovascular events was 34.2%.

More than one third of dialysis patients hospitalized for cardiovascular disease (CVD) are readmitted to a hospital within 30 days, and less than half of these readmissions are related to CVD, according to study findings presented at the 2018 Annual Dialysis Conference in Orlando, Florida.

David T. Gilberston, PhD, and James Wetmore, MD, of the Chronic Disease Research Group, Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, analyzed data from 142,210 CVD-related hospitalizations of Medicare-eligible dialysis patients from 2012 to 2013. The 10- and 30-day all-cause readmission rates were 15.6% and 34.2%, respectively. The CVD-related 10- and 30-day readmission rates were 6.6% and 14.7%, respectively. In addition, findings showed that 1.5% and 4.5% of patients died within 10 and 30 days following hospitalization.